Visible processes of work in the arts therefore become interesting when they disclose the hegemony of the difference between art and life and open up ways for representations and imagery of contemporary exploitation. In this, it is extremely important to make visible the exploitation within one’s own methods of production – to work in a way that makes the production conditions visible. - 

Bojana Kunst: Artist at work. Proximity of art And capitalism

 

Mothersuckers. ​​Production about reproduction 

 

The performance is a continuation of personal research on motherhood, its physicality, movement/stillness, and socio-political themes. The leading theme around which the author re / produces meanings/contexts/stereotypes and expectations is breastfeeding. The starting point is a play on words resulting from the combination of the term mother and the act of suckling.

​

The performer uses mainstream meanings available on the Internet, she looks at the results with the greatest reach and confronts them with the least obvious, but closest to the literal meaning, i.e. feeding the child. By reproducing the produced meanings, passing them through her body and voice, she tries to embody knowledge coming from very different sources: the Internet, a dictionary, Internet users 'comments, her previous works, scientific articles, reflections of social researchers, artists' statements, Isadora Duncan's memories remixed with the heroine of Flashdance, body and phone noises.

​

The performance looks at the discomfort of the images of the nursing mother, but also examines the activity itself, in its physicality and voicing, but without escaping from associations/fears, it discovers taboos related to breastfeeding, such as scandal, disgust, accusations about the sexual dimension or cannibalistic associations. Everything takes place in a scenery that is hidden every day, in the sphere of shame or failure, a house in which chaos reigns, lack of order, excess of stimuli, multitasking, and spoiled food.

​

Each of the viewers can take their place in relation to this space, but also to the subject, deciding according to their feelings, not necessarily permanently. In this way becoming a co-creator of this chaos adds new tasks to the performer, a new shape of space, showing his acceptance or withdrawal.

​

In the context of dance and movement, it was also difficult not to escape stereotypes related to motherhood in artistic practise and the feminist question of whether you can be an artist and a mother at the same time, or is the fact of not having children at the same time a denial of our biological nature? Does following our nature prevents us from functioning in "culture"? The performance looks at this questions with humour, showing the absurdity of both approaches.

​

The work was started as part of the ATLAS choreographic program, at ImpulsTanz Festival in 2021. The process leading to full piece was being developed as part of Residance 2022 in Bratislava, organized by the PLAST organization at Dance Residential Center Telocvičňa.